I like to believe that all out-of-state students share many of the same feeling when first arriving to Behrend. We all wonder if we are going to make friends, if the pants we bought will keep us warm during the ridiculous winter and if people are going to tease us about our bizarre non-Pennsylvanian ways. After a few short weeks of being here, however, I quickly fell in love with this campus, but just because I fell in love with the school in no way means that there weren’t things I had to learn and get used to. So here are a few thoughts I had when coming to Pennsylvania:
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“Why does this Mexican food look like Taco Bell?”
If you read this and want to argue that Taco Bell was authentic Mexican food, you do not know what you are missing. By far the hardest thing about moving to Pennsylvania was saying goodbye to Viva Taqueria, La Vic’s and the other hundreds of amazing Mexican restaurants in California. No mac-n-cheese bites, perogies or even Primanti Brothers will ever beat a good plate of carne asada tacos.
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“Let go to the beach! Just kidding… It’s a lake…”
One of the bigger disappointments I have experienced here at Behrend, was going to the “beach” for the first time. I don’t know why, but going in I was 100% mentally preparing for a big, beautiful Californian beach. Do not get me wrong, Presque Isle is beautiful and I love going down with my friends, but like I said, it’s no Davenport Cove.
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“They said it wasn’t cold… but I am lowkey freezing to death…”
Call me crazy, but I think 60 degrees is cold. When I say cold, I do not mean, “oh it’s a tad chilly” cold, I mean, “I am going to get hypothermia, I need Uggs, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket” cold. In Santa Clara, the average day in December is about 55-60 degrees so believe it or not, I was not mentally prepared for the 10-20 degree days that soon came upon me.
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“Why is this person complaining about gas?!”
I’ll keep this one short and simple. Your gas prices here are about $2.40. Be grateful. It’s not a good time paying almost $4.
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“Oh My God. This person if from where I am, therefore we will be best friends…”
Nothing compares to meeting someone from the same place you are from. They understand your struggles. They miss the things you miss. They go to the super cool local places that you go to. It is a true bond.
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“Yes, I am Mexican. Yes, I can speak Spanish. Nope, my parents were definitely born here…”
In California, about 38% of the population is Hispanic, so as one can imagine how odd it was to show up in Erie are realize how minimal diversity there was here. This doesn’t bother me at all, however, it is always pretty amusing meeting people and having them ask me various, stereotypical questions about my race.
My favorites include but are not limited to:
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Is all your family that dark or do you go tanning?
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How close are you to the border? Do you go over all the time?
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Do you have family in the Cartel?
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“I really want to listen to this person’s story but I have NO IDEA about anything from the location they are talking about…”
Look, I really am interested in your story and I would love to go to this super cool, delicious restaurant that you are trying to tell me about, but I can almost guarantee you that I probably have no idea what you are talking about. Unless you are talking about Pittsburgh (which the only thing I really know about it is that it is about two hours south) I have no idea about where this certain location is, or what it is, no matter how well you describe it. Sorry.
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“Why are these people eating sheets…”
Speaking of things that I had no idea about…
Thankfully now I know what it is and I love me some late night sheetz. But trust me, it sounded pretty weird hearing all these people talking about how much they loved eating sheets…
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“I would love to go home…”
Like I said in the beginning, I love Behrend and I love Erie, but the hardest part about being away (other than the absence of Mexican food) is being away my family. I love my family more than anything in this entire world and it breaks my heart that I can’t watch my siblings (the adorable newborn twins AND my two amazing puppies) grow up. It breaks my heart that I don’t get to spend time with my beyond perfect parents on events like birthdays, Easter and Thanksgiving. It breaks my heart that I don’t get to go to my grandparents house, where we would just hang out and have huge family dinners. However, even though it is hard being away, they are always just one phone call away and you know what they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder and it makes going home something that is special and something that I genuinely look forward to.